November 25, 1999
Dear Everyone:
Happy
Thanksgiving, although it means this Letter will be a day later
getting delivered via
Snail Mail.
Email will depend on
whether or not people check their email on holidays.
Tooth News:
The Tooth is better, though far from perfect.
10 days of penicillin has brought the inflammation down and it
doesn’t hurt very much. Next
Wednesday, the dentist plans to pull the Tooth.
(Note: There will
probably not be a Letter next week as I’m not likely to be in the mood
for writing.)
In other news…
Went for a ride on the
Napa
Valley Wine Train last Friday.
This was a reward for everyone in Information Management Services
resulting from our going over 200,000 hours (about three years) without
a recorded on-the-job injury.
This, of course, does not mean that there have been no injuries.
“Nina’s” foot is still sore from the time she slipped and fell
out at the dock.
But that wasn’t a
recorded injury because,
while she was on company property, she was not on the job when she
slipped. Technically, she
had finished work when she went to the dock to pick up some surplus
cardboard boxes for her daughter who was preparing for a move.
So why the Wine Train?
A team was formed (there’s a team for everything at Company) to
decide what the reward should be.
They were given a budget and came up with about a dozen ideas,
ranging from a day at the movies (try finding a movie that three dozen
people will all like) to a
Bay Cruise
to miniature golf
to donating the whole chunk of money to a charity.
All of the ideas were then submitted to all the
employees via email. Each
employee was allowed to vote for their three favorites.
I remember voting for mini-golf and a charity.
I definitely don’t remember voting for the Wine Train.
The votes were tabulated and the top three choices
were sent out again, with each employee voting for their one preference.
I again did not vote for the Wine Train.
In fact, I’ve only found one person who would admit to voting for
the Wine Train.
Nevertheless, the Wine Train won.
A slight suspicion exists that the Wine Train had already been
selected by management.
Whatever.
So, how was the Wine Train?
Pretty darned good, actually.
There are several levels of service, ranging from paying for wine
tasting to a full-blown gourmet lunch prepared by the Executive Chef.
We had the top drawer treatment all the way.
Chardonnay with the appetizer.
Pinot noir with the salad and foie gras (duck liver).
Merlot with the entrée.
At one point, we counted 20 glasses on a table set for four
people. But four of the
glasses don’t count because they were actually water goblets.
We were also treated to several “tastings” of
special wine batches made up by the featured winery.
And the vintner came along for the lunch, as did the Executive
Chef. Lunch, and the trip,
took three hours. The train
goes up the Napa
Valley, which, by the way, is gorgeous in the autumn, for about 90
minutes. Then it comes back
down again.
And we got more than lunch and wine.
We got Company T-shirts, a safety-related gift (flashlight in my
case) and an
American Express Gift Check worth $50, which I promptly used to buy
a couple of bottles of designer Chardonnay for our Christmas dinner next
month. The T-shirt and
flashlight are now in the Emergency Supply Box along with a pack of
playing cards (Thanks, “Richard”!) and a three-day supply of clean, dry
underwear.
OK, movies…
Saw
The Insider
last weekend.
Russell Crowe
shines as a man who allows The Truth to just about destroy him and his
family.
Al Pacino portrays
the 60 Minutes
producer who meets him by chance, but instantly senses that there is
something very important here.
This is the man who is going to admit on camera that the
tobacco company
executives knew all along that
nicotine is
addictive.
Christopher
Plummer is terrific as
Mike Wallace.
He has the voice and mannerisms dead on.
Look for all three to show up on the short list for possible
Academy Award nominees.
Don’t look for director
Michael
Mann to get the nod.
He’s much too fond of jiggly hand-held cameras and too-tight close-ups.
Don’t look for
Sleepy
Hollow at the Oscars either, unless it’s for set decoration or
special effects.
Johnny Depp and
Christina Ricci
are both fine. This is very,
very loosely based on
Washington
Irving’s
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but director
Tim Burton takes
it much further than the short story.
Depp, as
Ichabod Crane, is investigating a series of grisly murders.
Heads are rolling in all directions.
Depp apparently did a lot of adlibbing.
Those are the clever moments.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot more head-lopping than
clever moments. Definitely
not for the kiddies. You can
wait for the video on this one.
Love, as always,
Pete
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